Listening in … The Plot to Bring Down Britain's Planes. Photograph: Channel 4

Surveillance hasn't been getting a good press lately but, as The Plot to Bring Down Britain's Planes (Channel 4) made all too clear, without MI5's undercover operations, eight planes bound for the US from Heathrow would have been blown up over the Atlantic in August 2008, leaving 2,000 passengers dead and with many thousands more at risk, as the US and the UK would no doubt have retaliated by redoubling their efforts in the futile "war on terror".

While this gripping documentary skipped over how many innocent people get snooped on for every terrorist uncovered, even the most rabid conspiracy theorist would have to conclude that the ends justified the means in this instance. Lightweight that I am, I also frequently found my mind turning to the already much-missed – at least by me – Spooks. Or, rather, to the differences.

Here was a threat that was considerably more credible than anything dreamed up by Harry Pearce, and the response was infinitely more measured and low-tech. I dare say the real spooks didn't care to reveal all their tradecraft on camera, but even so there was precious little rushing around in fast cars, waving guns or computer geekery back at the Grid. There were some good codenames for the suspects – Lion Raw, Rich Food, Cold Wind and Top Drawer – but otherwise it was all just solid leg work from about 200 MI5 officers, with a bit of video surveillance and an elementary computer search in an internet cafe.

Above all, no one – not a suspect nor a spy – picked up so much as a scratch throughout the operation. It was somehow all very British. I have a feeling the film was meant to leave me feeling disturbed as to just how close this country had come to total mayhem, but it actually had the opposite effect of making me feel rather reassured.

Well, up to a point. That point being the involvement of the US. The deal was that our spooks would share all their info with US spooks and vice versa; only it turned out to be a one-way deal, for as soon as the US felt the Brits weren't acting fast enough for their liking they jeopardised the whole operation by having the al-Qaida contact in Pakistan arrested without bothering to tell us. Here was proof that you should sometimes keep your enemies close but your friends closer, and that, when the chips are down, the US still thinks we are its poodle.

There again, the Americans are often a breed unto themselves. Not wanting to restrict his intelligence-gathering to his opponents, President "Tricky Dicky" Nixon took the unusual decision to conduct surveillance on himself by recording all his conversations in the Oval Office, thereby unwittingly ending his presidential career over the Watergate scandal. Which only goes to show that what often starts as tragedy – a strictly personal one, in Nixon's case – often resurfaces as comedy many years later.

And Nixon's the One (Sky Arts 1) was half an hour of pure pleasure. Filmed as a fly-on-the-wall documentary, with Harry Shearer (The Simpsons, Spinal Tap etc) as a disconcertingly accurate Nixon and Henry Goodman popping up now and again as Henry Kissinger, this was like a surreal mixture of The Thick of It, The Office and Forrest Gump. The surreal bit being that it all actually happened, as the dialogue was recreated word for word from the Nixon tapes.

Every scene was a miniature gem, from Nixon discussing his self-surveillance – "record them all [my conversations] and then destroy them all periodically" – to him moaning about the IRS going after Billy Graham and John Wayne rather than the rich Jews. Best of all, after debating the comparative merits of "American Mexicans and Negroes", was Nixon on homosexuality: "I understand it," he said, "but we shouldn't be glorifying it. Homosexuality destroyed the Greeks: Aristotle and Socrates were both homos. The last six Roman emperor were all fags. It's what's happened to Britain, and France before them. Homosexuality and dope; they are the two enemies of a strong state. Jesus, I don't want to even shake hands with anyone from San Francisco."

If you've been panicking recently that, in the triumvirate of Cameron, Osborne and Clegg, the lunatics really have taken over the asylum, Tricky Dicky suggested they have a way to go yet. Or perhaps not. After all, does anyone know what they are saying in private? I can feel a sequel coming.